Diaper



g- 5, 1929. c. M. SCHWARTZ 1,723,303

DIAPER Filed May 28, 1927 diaries Jc/cwurfz W KM Patented Aug. 6, 1929.

UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

CHARLES M. SCHWARTZ, F PHILADELPHIA, PENNSYLVANIA, ASSIGNOR TO EDWINSOMMERICH, OF NEW YORK, N. Y., AND ALEXANDER H. STRAUSS, OF WOODMERE,

NEW YORK.

DIAPER.

Application filed May 28,

The subject of this invention is a new article of manufacture, to wit, aone-use apparel garment for application to a childs body diaper-wise.

The invention, providing what may be termed a throw-away diaper, has theobject of doing away with the ordinary diapercloth diapers, wheneverpossible, and particularly where the inconvenience and expense ofrepeated and frequent washings and dryings of the ordinary diapers, aswell as the unsanitary aspects of this system, are appreciated.

The cost of each diaper used, and permanently discarded after one use,when the diaper is made according to the present invention, I have foundto compare very favorably indeed with the cost of each use of anordinary diaper, where a suitable 2 stock of the latter are provided,and the laundering cost, the inconvenience due to rainy-weatherinterferences with the supply of dry diapers, etc., are all considered.

According to the present invention, the

new one-use diaper is a freely flexible sheet structure including aplurality of dissimilar layers, these layers, especially if they areseparate and distinct sheets, as is now deemed desirable, beingpreferably connected to- 80 gether so that they will during handlingremain in their intended relative positions. By a freely flexible sheetstructure is meant a sheet structure flexible about a childs limbs to beapplied thereto diaper-wise as 85 above stated; as contradistinguishedfrom say, the comparative lack of flexibility of a common type of deskblotter made wholly of paper pulp and having the blotter-layerproperfacing a thin cardboard or relatively stiff paper layer.

According to the present invention, also, at least in its preferredform, the new diaper includes a plurality of layers of different degreesof softness, one which is a softer layer to be placed against the skinof the child and being of a water-absorbent material, as a soft layerlike cotton batting. Another comparatively softer material may beemployed for the softer layer, such, for

instance as a layer made of an fibrous material w ere the fibers are in.iseriminately HEISISUED relatively extended, as contradistinguishedfrom the intended distribution of such fibers found in sheet materialformed as the result of weaving, knitting, or otherwise predeterminedlyinterlocking threads or preformed strands.

According to the present invention, also, at leastin its preferred form,the new diaper, having a plurality of layers formed of fibrous elementsas above, also includes a layer which is a water-proof layer.

The invention is most satisfactorily carried out, according to myexperiments to date, by utilizing a different and distinct paper sheetfor each of the different elemcnts, and by providing a singlewater-proof paper underlying layer and a plurality of overlyingwater-absorbent paper layers.

Various other objects and advantages of the invention than thosehereinabove mentioned will be specifically pointed out or will beapparent hereinafter in the course of the below detailed description ofthe forms of the invention shown, in the accompanying drawing, aspreferred ones of the various possible embodiments of the invention; itbeing understood, naturally that such forms are merely illustrative ofsome of the many possible combinations and arrangements of parts wellcalculated to attain the objects of the invention, and hence saiddetailed description of such forms is not to be taken as at all definingor limiting the invention itself. That is to say, the scope ofprotection contemplated is of course to be taken from the appendedclaims, interpreted as broadly as is consistent with the prior art.

In said drawing:

Fig. 1 is a plan view of one form, looking down on a softer layer;

Fig. 2 is an enlarged detail, being a section taken 011 line 22 of Fig.1; i

Fig. 3 is a front elevation of the form of Fig. 1, folded on the lines 3of Fig. 1, and secured, as thus folded, in one possible way according tothe invention, to be held diaperwise as it would be held on a childsbody;

Fig. 4.- is a rear elevation of the parts as arranged in Fig. 3; and

Fig. 5 is a fragmentary pers ective view illustrating a different formof t e invention.

Similar reference characters refer to similar parts throughout theseveral views of the drawing.

Referring to the form of the invention shown in Fig. 1, the same isshown as comprising a superposed stack of triangular paper sheets, ofwhich the underlying sheet 6 is ordinary comparatively thin brown paper,suitably water-proofcd, as by parafiin wax, and the overlying sheets 7are of thin soft and creped paper, such as is known in the paper art asDisband paper. As is well known, this type of paper last mentioned isfiufly, almost fiocculent, resembles somewhat a very thin sheet ofcotton batting, and is highly water-absorbent. While only three sheets 7are illustrated for assisting clarity of illustration, any suitablenumber may be used, say eight or nine; together to constitute thewater-absorbent layer of considerable softness as compared to thewater-proof layer here provided by the single sheet (3.

It is desirable always in a diaper of any kind to avoid pins, evenso-called safety pins. It is also most convenient in carrying out thepresent invention to secure the different layers so as to maintain themin their intended locations during handling of the new diaper. Where, asjust described, the layers are all formed as the result of providing aplurality of distinct sheets, the layers are desirably secured togetherat a plurality of spaced points. In the present case, the means for thussecuring the sheets together form part'of a means preferablyincorporated, and forming a preferred feature of the invention, for usein holding the new diaper on the child in such a way that safety pins orthe like for that purpose may be entirely avoided.

As a preferred embodiment of the feature ]ust referred to, a smallcardboard piece as indicated at 8 is arranged on the top of the diaper,and an aligned similar piece 9 is laid underneath the diaper, at each ofthe points where the layers of the diaper are to be secured together,and then such securement is .attained by applying an eyelet 10 andclinching the opposite ends of said eyelet against the pieces 8 and 9which it has pierced, as shown most clearly in Fig. 2.

This may compress the softerv layer made up of the sheets 7 as indicatedin Fig. 2; but this is no disadvantage, and indeed may be an advantagewhere such a fastener is applied to a part of the diaper which might vbeso located as to contact the childs body.

The pieces 9, when the diaper is made as illustrated in Figs. 1 and 2,will appear as shown in Fig. 3 when the diaper is folded and applied tothe childs limbs in the usual way. In the present case, the pieces 9 areindicated as square, and the pieces 8 are indirated as dis These discs 9here form part of the means for securing the diaper in its foldedcondition on the child, the other element of said means being a flexibleelement, as an ordinary piece of string, 11. This string may be anchoredat one end by wrapping an end portion thereof about the shankof aneyelet and underneath a piece 9, and by then passing the string toanother eyelet, then wrapping the string around the latter, and thenpassing the string to the third eyelet,-and

so on. In the present case, an end 11 of the string is assumed to besecured, say at the factory, about the eyelet 10 to the extreme left inFig. 3; and the free length of the string is indicated as being by thenurse next passed around the eyelet 10 to the extreme right in Fig. 3,next around the eyelet 10 at the bottom in Fig. 3, and last passedaround and locked to the first eyelet to leave the free end of thestring dangling as indicated at 11 in Fig. 3.

Referring finally to Fig. 5, a form of the invention is shown whereinthe underlying water-proof layer 6 carries a single-mass water-absorbentlayer 7, as a layer of cotton batting.

Inasmuch as many changes could be made in the above constructions, andmany apparently widely different embodiments of the invention could bemade without departing from the scope thereof, it is intended that allmatter contained in the above description or shown in the accompanyingdrawing shall be interpreted as illustrative and not in a, limitingsense.

It is also to be understood that the language contained in the followingclaims 1s intended to cover all thegeneric and specific features of theinvention herein described, and All statements of the scope of theinvention which, as a matter of language, might be said to falltherebetween.

I claim:

1. As a new. article of -manufacture, a childs garment in the form of adiaper consisting of an outer sheet of impervious paper, a similarlyshaped inner layer of soft absorbent paper, means for holding togethersaid sheet and layer, such means comprising fastener members passingthrough the sheet and layer at points located near all of the pointedterminals of the garment, said fastening members providing means forsecuring the garment together about the wearer and a flexible securingmember adapted to pass between and connect the fastening members.

2. A new article of manufacture comprising a childs diaper composed ofan outer layer of impervious paper in substantially triangular form, aninner layer of absorbent material, fastening means for holding thegarment in folded position about the wearer, said means comprising aspaced projection on the garment near each of the terminals thereon, anda flexible member adapted points thereon located adjacent to the pointtopass between and connect each of said ed terminals, a securing cordattached to one projections on the outside of the garment to of saidbuttons and adapted to pass between 1 hold the garment on the'wearer.and enga e with the other buttons to act as 5 3. A new article ofmanufacture comprisa means for securing the garment about the ing atriangular paper diaper having several wearer.

pointed terminals, buttons at several spaced CHARLES M. SCHWARTZ.

